* Click on the Supporters logo to see their individual rural insight (if one has been provided).

The development of the research capability (area by area) for the group is dependent on the number of supporters of the organisation that can be achieved. Ultimately to fund the envisaged 125k work programme we seek 250 companies who are prepared to help. We seek companies who are prepared to contribute what it is hoped may be regarded as the relatively small contribution of £500 each year. Clearly it is not possible to achieve this in quick time. We plan to approach one or two sectors a year so that the ask can be both targeted and achievable. The hope is to grow the supporters group by some 25 organisations each year so that it may be a decade before the work programme totally achieves its mapped capacity (please also see the Ambitions area where this is fully set out).
The first private sector area approached was Water Companies. Water Companies obviously have a strong interest in rural areas as their water is sourced from these areas. There are 16 Water Companies serving England. Ten of those companies have agree to support the initiative. We are hopeful the involvement of the majority will encourage the remaining six to get involved.

The next sector to be approached was Fuel Providers and Distributors. In terms of Fuel Providers there are 21 companies selling fuel to people in England. Once again the source of the fuel often is based in a rural location. Fuel companies vary in size. Of ‘the Big Six’ companies 5 have agreed to support the group with only the one declining. That has been encouraging as these companies obviously receive an awful lot of approaches and will not be short of suitors. Two Companies that are product specific have also agreed to be involved. They are Ecotricity and Green Energy. There are ten companies who specialise in fuel distribution. Many of these operate across the various English regions. All of them have been approached and six of them have agreed to become supporters. The empathy between power and the fuel providers has obviously been proven and we hope we can encourage many of the remaining companies to support us.

There are in the country 60 companies who specialise in fuel production.We will over the winter be approaching all of these companies.

We have also been involved through the telecommunication industry with the Mobile Operators Association being involved.

The next sector we plan to approach will be the ten largest land owners in the country. We have already been successful in gaining the support of the Crown Estate and we will be looking to have discussion with the other nine. At the same time we will also discuss the situation with the ten major land agents in the county. Whilst we recognise that both land owners and land agents will not be short of approaches for assistance we do hope they will regard this initiative as being fulcrum to rural area interest.

We keep supporters up dated by publishing an updating a ‘Wall of Support’ document which can be downloaded here